Day Six/Transcript
Session Start (Wackd:#tvtropesdoctorwho): Sat Mar 22 12:36:41 2014 -0400 14:30 So, Wackd, want to talk about Of The City Of The Saved or whatever? Will this session get an update on the blog thingy? 14:31 <@Wackd> Mukora's not gonna be able to make it. 14:31 <@Wackd> Regardless of what happens this will get an update on the blog thingy. 14:31 ...Wait, what? 14:32 <@Wackd> He literally just PMed me saying something came up. I was gonna mention it when I responded on the thread. 14:33 I wish I still had things come up. Now I'm boring because I have a job and responsibilities. Also twenty-nine weeks pregnant. 14:33 <@Wackd> I don't think you're boring. 14:34 <@Wackd> Besides, you have had things come up. 14:36 I'm hormonal, bored, and after my brother and niece went for their father-daughter bonding thing, a little lonely. Let me bitch. 14:36 <@Wackd> Fair enough. Vent away. 14:37 <@Wackd> ...twenty minutes to kill, what the hell, gonna pull out Of. 14:39 <@Wackd> Right, got to the part where the kid gets stepped on. 14:39 I mean, most of my fun these days is planned ahead of time. Rarely last minute. 14:40 Yeah, the part where the kid gets stepped on. Like that part. 14:40 <@Wackd> After reading this I don't think I ever want to experience anything that relies of juxtaposition for humor ever again. Thankfully it it appears this section is almost over. 14:41 ...Doesn't the Hitchhiker's Guide do that a lot? I sorta like the writers for it. Douglas Adams and Philip Purser-Hallard. 14:42 I've actually got my paper copy out now. Got it when you mentioned you were having difficulties. 14:42 <@Wackd> Hitchhiker's Guide 1. makes language an accomplice to the humor rather than a detriment to it, and 2. somehow has more narrative momentum than this. 14:43 You're in the first chapter and the first 12 pages. At this point Arthur was lying in front of a bulldozer. 14:44 Heyo. 14:44 <@Wackd> Hey. 14:44 Hi. 14:44 <@Wackd> So! 14:45 <@Wackd> You're on the TARDIS. The rest of the companions make their excuses and duck back to their rooms or to get a bite to eat or whatever they need to do to recoup from this near-death experience and cope with the possibility that the Doctor might be dead. 14:46 ...Could we please recruit one more person maybe? We already mentioned back in Day One that two players and a DM might not be so fun. Could you PM the Eruditorum Guy on tumblr maybe? 14:46 Anyone? Laura? emeriin? 14:46 Heck, even if its someone that shows up for this session and not again. 14:46 <@Wackd> Um...and incorporate them into the story how? 14:47 TARDIS Voice Interface. 14:47 Or someone that got lost. 14:47 Or the first one. 14:47 <@Wackd> I play the TARDIS, though. 14:47 You can let go of that for one mini-session. 14:47 I just, the fun is people. 14:48 If it irks you that badly, should we just cancel today? 14:48 I didn't anticipate Mukora dropping. 14:48 <@Wackd> I didn't either! 14:48 Thirded. 14:48 ...Did he say how long his thing would last? 14:48 ...Hold on a minute, Imma try to PM someone. 14:49 <@Wackd> All he said was "Something came up, I'm not going to be able to make it today. Sorry." 14:49 We've still got 12 minutes. 14:49 <@Wackd> I suspect if he would've been able to show up later he might've mentioned. 14:49 Personal emergency, then. 14:50 <@Wackd> I suspect so. 14:50 <@Wackd> ...I'm also against the TARDIS interface as a character because if it can just do that at any time, it kinda shoots "The Doctor's Wife" in the foot. 14:52 I'm of the opinion that whatever happens happens. 14:52 And just adding new characters right out of the blue because you don't like playing with only 2 others is kind of an insecure reach. 14:52 Compassion did the voice interface thing in Warring States. Sort of. 14:52 <@Wackd> Anything that, in happening, causes something else to happen, causes something else to happen. 14:52 <@Wackd> Anything that, in happening, causes itself to happen again, happens again. 14:52 <@Wackd> It doesn’t necessarily do it in chronological order, though. 14:52 Not necessarily in chronological order though. 14:53 <@Wackd> Who are you inviting? 14:54 emeriin. 14:54 <@Wackd> K. 14:54 I mean, Laura's still probably got her internet thing. 14:54 The Eruditorum Guy's probably busy. 14:54 <@Wackd> It's about 6AM where Laura is. 14:55 And I don't know many other people/tropers. 14:55 ...Maybe AHR? 14:55 Hmm. 14:55 <@Wackd> I suggested AHR and you vetoed her. 14:55 I didn't necessarily. Did I? 14:56 I don't remember saying flat-out that I didn't want her in. 14:56 Need I remind how you were against me showing up at first, unnoun? 14:56 -_ 14:56 *-_- 14:56 <@Wackd> I'm pretty sure you did, but it'd take forever to prove because all our PMs have the same title. 14:56 I was, and I was a bit against AHR as well, for the same reasons. And I relented to let you in. 14:56 I like having PM chains though. They're convenient. Ish. For me. 14:57 And I apologize nomuru. 14:57 <@Wackd> Chains are fine, but for the past six months the vast majority of our correspondences read "pesterlog" and most of them are on wildly different subjects. 14:57 <@Wackd> That's not a chain, that's a ball of yarn. 14:57 Well em's not going to be in it. 14:57 Got a PM. 14:58 lol pesterlog 14:58 <@Wackd> So AHR's on Facebook. 14:58 <@Wackd> Want me to ask her along? 14:58 We have a dedicated chain for when we're mad at each other. That's useful. Especially since one of us is me, and therefore awful and mean. 14:58 <@Wackd> We do. It's way more useful than I'd like it to be. 14:59 <@Wackd> And you're not awful and mean. We just talk over each other's heads sometimes. 15:00 Yeah, I guess AHR can join. Although, wait, would she want to join full-time? Because everyone else would just show up once as a favor. 15:01 <@Wackd> I dunno. 15:01 <@Wackd> She's pretty into RP stuff. 15:01 ...I guess we can start now though. What was our opening again? 15:01 <@Wackd> If you want me to invite her, I will. 15:01 <@Wackd> Just say the word. 15:01 ...Sometime during the week maybe, now is too much. 15:02 <@Wackd> Alright then. 15:02 *sigh* 15:02 <@Wackd> You're on the TARDIS. The rest of the companions make their excuses and duck back to their rooms or to get a bite to eat or whatever they need to do to recoup from this near-death experience and cope with the possibility that the Doctor might be dead. 15:03 (It was on fire last time, right?) 15:03 <@Wackd> (The fire was out but everything was pretty charred and burnt.) 15:05 Janeth sighs as he stares off, sitting on stairs and lost in thought. 15:05 "Something wrong?" Ellie asks, concerned. Her eyestalk has retracted, and her forehead has an angry scab in its place. 15:06 "Want to have some souffle with the others?" 15:06 (You said they went to get a bite to eat. That means souffles." 15:06 (Souffles) 15:06 "I'm fine. It's just... I wonder if they're alright." 15:06 (parentheses) 15:07 "...Wonder if who's alright?" 15:07 "My people. My family. My home." 15:08 "Want to go check on them? We've got a time machine, and I think the Time-Space Visualiser might be working." 15:08 "Depending on where it is in this configuration." 15:08 "Visualiser? As in some kind of monitor?" 15:09 "Basically, yeah." 15:09 "Well... for them it must have been years. Might as well see, right?" 15:10 "Again, time machine. We can look at them at basically any point you want." 15:10 <@Wackd> Around them, the TARDIS begins to remove the damaged bits and adapt a new color scheme and appearance. The old desktop melts away like film on an overheating projector, dissipating before their eyes. 15:10 "Or we could check the beatles." 15:10 "I want to know if they're alright now. If they survived the Cybermen." 15:10 "...Although, wait. The Doctor has a thing where the past can't be rewritten once you've read it." 15:11 Although, privately, Ellie could think of a few less-than-flattering things to say about that so-called rule. 15:11 "This Doctor isn't here, and you said my presence alone would be objectionable." 15:11 "If you want to go back to them, if you want to help them, then maybe checking it out would be less than ideal." 15:13 "But that's the thing: when you all ran checks on me, none of you could figure out what my deal was." 15:13 "What if... whatever happened to me... prevents me from going home? What if it did something else?" 15:13 "It's a law of time. It can't be broken. And his thing is about military types He does like helping those in need though. He wouldn't object to getting you away from there." 15:14 What she didn't say was that laws of time were rubbish, and that Janeth,lovely as he may be, wasn't exactly cultist material. 15:14 (And the reason we couldn't check you is because you changed your story from what Wack'd was excpecting you'd do.) 15:15 (...Wait, is this before or after the desktop changed? I mean, I expect Ellie to be nonchalant about it.) 15:15 (Janeth's story had to be changed because that friend of Wack'd's dropped out, but I went along with most of what was established talking with him.) 15:16 <@Wackd> (No...no you didn't. It was supposed to be a routine espionage mission. The appearing from thin air thing was something Ace came up with that I tailored to fit that.) 15:18 "...If you want us to check your family, and you're not there, it could prevent you from ever returning to them. If you don't check, you'll probably able to do whatever you want." 15:18 (Well, I'd been throwing around that idea too. It was just convenient, I suppose.) 15:18 "Just to be safe, it might be an idea to turn up the chaotic limiter settings." 15:19 "Assuming the Type 40 even has one." 15:19 "Hmm..." 15:19 (Turn down! Turn down the chaotic limiter settings is what I meant to say) 15:19 (Down is the opposite of up!) 15:20 "I suppose checking could be sorted out later, if it's that much of a mess." 15:20 <@Wackd> If it did, it was becoming rapidly difficult to locate, as the console had begun rearranging itself into a configuration that, while retaining the hexagonal shape and central column, had completely upended everything else. 15:20 "In the meantime, what is this ship's deal?" 15:21 "I've been seeing panels pop out and replacements come from nowhere since I got on here." 15:22 "It's a quasi-sentient space-time event." 15:22 "She, I mean. Sorry." 15:22 "Is pronoun trouble a regular thing? I mean, you kept referring to this Doctor as both he and she." 15:22 "...Did I? I didn't think I did." 15:23 (Pretty sure we didn't in the logs.) 15:23 "Well, the Doctor changes sometimes." 15:23 (He does like helping those in need though. He wouldn't object to getting you away from there.") 15:23 (From Ellie's mouth.) 15:23 (Shit.) 15:24 "The Doctor's really fluid. Like mercury." 15:24 As Ellie said this, she rubbed her hand along one of the exposed mercury fluid links. 15:24 "Poisonous for consumption too, I take it?" 15:24 "Quite possibly, yes." 15:26 "Alright then." 15:27 (I mean, you mentioned it in-character so I can't take back that mistake.) 15:27 (Without a shrine and some biomass at least.) 15:27 (And the TARDIS would object to a skull-themed redecoration.) 15:27 (I would too, frankly. Too many memories of The Ancestor Cell.) 15:28 "An avian alien, an AI, a liberated human Dalek, a big strong... whatever-Brom-is, and an alien that sometimes changes shape in charge of a ship with its own skewed sense of interior design." 15:28 "This is a very weird situation, to say the least." 15:28 "...Hold on, why did she even take us to the Cybership in the first place?" 15:29 (She. I like to think that Ellie would refer to the TARDIS with capitals. Sort of worshipful.) 15:29 (Or not. Whatever.) 15:29 "Maybe the Cybermen somehow got a lock on it while it travelled?" 15:30 "I mean, they were able to trap it." 15:30 "But that's not supposed to be possible. I mean, most of the time it doesn't travel, it just sort of moves us around." 15:30 "The exterior and the interior aren't even in the same place." 15:30 "Minutes ago I didn't believe time travel was supposed to be possible." 15:30 "And yet here we are." 15:31 "It all works under a series of ludicrous calculations only possible by organic..." Ellie paused, trying to catch up with what Janeth was saying. 15:31 "...Hold on, the time agency was in the 51st century. It was secret, but not a good secret." 15:31 "How can you not know about these things?" 15:32 "My home was a distantly-removed colony world. We didn't get much in terms of news." 15:33 "Every colony's got to have a starliner of some kind. And most civilizations have at least heard rumors and legends." 15:33 "Especially human colonies. The blue box that falls from the sky and saves the day." 15:34 Ellie was trying not to sound too bitter. She decided to sacrifice herself back at the asylum. Not rescuing her wasn't the Doctor's fault. 15:35 <@Wackd> (Janeth's from the 140th century. Not sure how much most people know about things that happened 890 years ago in intense detail off the top of their heads.) 15:35 (One of those things is a group that patrolled the timeline. With time travel.) 15:35 (Centuries tend to blend together sometimes with that in mind.) 15:35 <@Wackd> (Eighty-nine THOUSAND years ago. Whoops. Misplaced a decimal point.) 15:36 <@Wackd> (No, just eight thousand.) 15:36 <@Wackd> (Look, whatever.) 15:36 (Millenia too.) 15:36 Janeth sighed and started going into a calm explanation. "The colony that formed Sohamfrom wanted to try its own hand at developing on a new world. According to records, the world only got founded at roughly the 100th century." 15:37 "And after finding a world suitable for proper development along the lines of the old planet Earth, the ship landed and... basically disassembled itself." 15:38 "...Sounds familiar. This isn't going to end with the story of 'a man that never would', is it?" 15:38 "The people from it were basically given the essentials, plus blueprints for what would eventually come down the line. They didn't redevelop space transmission technology until roughly the 120th century." 15:40 "Ah. Roughing it then." 15:40 "But when they did... they caught whispers. Utterings of things they knew by instinct not to like." 15:40 "Things such as the Daleks and the Cybermen." 15:41 "...Sorry, it's just that Daleks aren't normally associated with whispers. And there's not a lot of the universe they've never been to." 15:41 "Not literal whispers. I guess it might have been bad luck or something, because while Sohamfron was never invaded by Daleks..." 15:42 "It was hit by Cybermen." 15:42 "I'd guessed that much." 15:42 "...Weird, though. Pulled forward by that many decades?" 15:43 "You're telling me. I have some faith that Sohamfron might have been able to hold its own. They managed to fight off the Cybermen for a good chunk of 2 centuries."" 15:45 "But... I don't know, uncertainy always just nags at me whenever it rears its ugly head." 15:45 Ellie glanced at him. Wondered how to get a good biodata sample without him noticing, then wondered how she'd be able to analyze it, given the lack of a shrine, then gave up on the whole prospect. 15:45 "...Anyway, I don't think you've been given the tour yet. What do you want to see?" 15:46 "The kitchen, where I've got the rest of the souffle?" 15:46 "I get the feeling I might be stuck here for a long while. Why not?" 15:46 "The swimming pool?" 15:46 "The library?" 15:46 "The black hole?" 15:46 "Cloister room?" 15:46 "It's got bells." 15:46 "... Why does this place have a black hole?" 15:46 "Movie theatre?" 15:46 "Power supply." 15:47 And because black holes bend time and space around them. 15:47 "... I'll just chalk that up to quantum mechanics and leave it at that." 15:47 "You said there was a library?" 15:47 "There is indeed." 15:48 <@Wackd> The staircase they're sitting on begins to recolor itself and swing across to another end of the room entirely, leading up now to a doorway that hadn't been there two seconds ago. 15:48 A small smile forms on Janeth's face. "Let's be off, then." 15:48 They set off. 15:49 Because the TARDIS rearranges itself, there's not any specific route. They get to where the TARDIS wants them to go, when She wants them to get there. 15:50 "Seriously. do you want this part of the souffle?" 15:50 <@Wackd> (Well, which way do they head? Just so I've got some setting details.) 15:51 (Through the door, I guess, but I think trying to draw a coherent, static map of the TARDIS is the way of madness.) 15:51 "Believe it or not, I ate a big meal before my mission. I'll be fine." 15:52 "Okay, suit yourself." 15:52 Ellie eats the souffle. 15:52 <@Wackd> (I won't be doing that, but it's nice to know what I'm supposed to be describing.) 15:52 "Feels like we've been moving about for hours and for seconds at the same time." 15:52 "That kind of thing normal here?" 15:53 (The doorway the staircase moved to.) 15:53 <@Wackd> At the top of the stairs is a doorway leading into a hallway. Ellie and Janeth begin to hover about as doors present themselves in seemingly random location on the sides of the hall. 15:53 Ellie considered mentioning her apartment at the Eleven Day Empire but decided not to. 15:53 "It's normal enough for what it is." 15:54 Janeth opens a nearby door and looks inside. 15:54 "Oh hey, swimming pool." 15:54 "Not really dressed for a swim." 15:55 "Definitely not." 15:55 He closes the door and keeps moving. 15:55 <@Wackd> It is indeed the swimming pool, though not the room proper. Water hovers in front of him, immune to what little gravity the place has left, and the pool area itself can be hazily made out out the top. 15:56 Ellie opens another door, expecting a surprise from the TARDIS at the contents. 15:56 (I think I'd rather you figure out what doors I open. More fun that way.) 15:56 "... Is that a ticket booth?" 15:57 (Have a random number generator. Even if I open different doors on opposite sides and it leads to the same room.) 15:57 (Or decide what room the TARDIS wants us in.) 15:57 (Also, once we close a door it might even be reset. Who knows.) 15:57 <@Wackd> It is a ticket booth. There's nothing around it. It's just a ticket booth. There's an entire, if somewhat small, room, devoted to this ticket booth for no evident reason. 15:57 "Huh." 15:58 Ellie tries another door. 15:58 <@Wackd> It's a massive room filled to the brim with assorted monitors and screens--some lining the walls, some hanging from the ceiling, a few holographic projections hovering about. 15:58 "At this point, I'm wondering if the ship enjoys messing about with its passengers." 15:58 "Wouldn't you?" 15:59 "Never really had a chance to. Too busy reading up on general history and learning where to shoot." 16:00 "...You haven't even had any chances to mess with people?" Ellie was appalled. Faction Paradox fully recognized the importance of fun, preferably at someone's expense. What was the point of a carnival otherwise? 16:01 "Sohamfron got really militant about 5 years after the Cybermen found it." 16:01 "Practical jokes were sentenced with brig time." 16:02 "Yikes. I can't imagine spending that long with Alistair." 16:03 "Who?" 16:03 Ellie paused. "...Now when you say 'brig time' what do you mean by that?" 16:04 (Yes, I did just make that pun.) 16:04 "Brig-related punishment. Depending on the severity of the joke, you either spent your time in it, or were forced to spend time cleaning all of it." 16:05 "...Again, when you say 'brig-related' you mean incarceration, right? Not a particular brigadier general, right?" 16:05 "Sorry. Got confused for a second there." 16:06 "It's okay." 16:06 Ellie tries a different door. 16:07 But yeah - for some reason, teens loved trying to go for both at the same time. Seemed to be the highest honor for them, for reasons I couldn't be bothered to understand." 16:07 "" 16:07 <@Wackd> It's the library, finally, appearing to extend infinitely outwards from the door. 16:08 "... Woah." 16:08 "Pretty cool, yeah?" 16:08 "It would be too forward to ask for a bed here, wouldn't it?" 16:09 "I don't think so." Ellie glanced up. "Can he?" She asked the ceiling. 16:09 "If she wants you to have one you'll spot it eventually." 16:10 "Anyway, where do you want to start?" 16:11 Ellie decided she could spend a little bit of time here. It was definitely safer then the Stacks. 16:11 "Well, that's the beauty of libraries." 16:11 He walks up to a shelf and reaches for a book. "You can start anywhere." 16:11 "I wonder if there's a copy of the manual in here." 16:13 "...Or maybe The History Of The Time War. Haven't read it in ages." 16:13 "There was a war for time?" 16:13 "There were at least three." 16:13 "Sounds like an abstract subject." 16:13 "Depending on how you count. It gets complicated." 16:14 "Abstract doesn't begin to cover it." 16:17 "Heh. Might be worth a look later." 16:17 "I wasn't there. For any of them. Not many were. The Doctor was unlucky enough to have been in two." 16:18 "I find it strange that anyone would willingly get into wars over the concept of time, much less the same person being present for two of said wars." 16:20 "It is strange, isn't it? I mean, a civilization with time travel has basically unlimited resources. All of time and space at their fingertips. Not anything to compete over really." 16:21 He looked at the cover for the book he grabbed. "Dante's Inferno... Good read." 16:21 He puts it back. "If that's the case, then couldn't a time war go on indefinitely in theory?" 16:22 "You'd think that even my people would've heard of it." 16:22 "Well, yeah, except for the protocols of linearity." 16:23 "And your people don't seem to have heard of very much, no offense." 16:24 "I mean, a lot of civilizations are still recovering from the last War." 16:24 "Zygons, Nestene, countless others." 16:24 "I mean, the First War supposedly happened so far back that not much had developed yet." 16:25 "How does that work? Cavemen getting a hold of space-time-sticks and bashing each other?" 16:25 "Humans aren't the only species out there." 16:25 "...And there's somethings that barely qualify as 'species'." 16:25 "Cavemen analogues, then." 16:26 "No, not really. The way I heard it, it was the Doctor's people." 16:26 "They set up the whole 'time' thing. The framework of history." 16:27 "And when they set down all the rules they accidentally punched a whole in the universe in the process." 16:27 "A big one." 16:27 "So in the beginning there was time, and somebody decided that was a very bad thing?" 16:28 "No. Well. Yes. I mean, time and history aren't quite the same thing." 16:28 "That's almost as bad as saying the same thing about the universe." 16:29 "The people of the Doctor's Homeworld, they experienced time one way. They were the forced civilization to exist. But they were scared, because other beings might not experience time the same way they did. Which could be dangerous. Quantum." 16:29 (first civilization to exist) 16:29 (Of course.) 16:29 (How did I misspell "first" into "forced"?) 16:30 (The same way autocorrect can misspell "cupcake" into "cumfart"?) 16:31 "So they set things up so the way they percieved time would be universal. Lots of technology. Things sorta like the TARDIS here. Except not quite." Ellie paused. "...Also, things like the black hole." 16:31 "Anyway. They set up history. the framework the events fit into." 16:32 "Punched a hole in the universe." 16:32 "Then the first War started." 16:33 "...It's not entirely clear what that War was with." 16:33 "I'd probably guess a different universe." 16:35 "Not necessarily. One theory was just that the things were just a result of the two universes intersecting. Like foam or frayed edges tangling." 16:35 Janeth finds a table and chair behind another one of the shelves, and moves to it. Setting his rifle onto the table and taking a seat, he stretches and relaxes as he listenes to Ellie. 16:36 "Well, who can say, really? I mean, if it were that easy to figure out, maybe these people would still be around." 16:37 "...Look, it's complicated, and I'm going off of things I heard the Doctor say, things she's more willing to talk about lately. Things I picked up in conversation." 16:37 "...Some things from the Daleks." 16:37 <@Wackd> (Tread carefully if you're gonna put words in the Doctor's mouth.) 16:38 "Some things my Little Siblings and Cousins and Parents and Godparents taught me." 16:38 (Well it's not like you're saying much. And I imagine the Doctor's a little more open after Day.) 16:38 "And some things from books in this library." 16:38 He raises an eyebrow. "Sounds like you've had an interesting life." 16:39 "...And I think the Doctor's people might still be around. Maybe." 16:39 <@Wackd> (Open, yes, but I do know what her version of events should look like, should they become relevant.) 16:39 <@Wackd> (The Time Lords are in fact back for realsies by this point, yeah.) 16:39 (Oh come on. You let me be Faction Paradox. That means counts.) 16:40 (That means it counts.) 16:41 <@Wackd> (That means I'm accepting Faction Paradox and its culture as a part of the setting. It doesn't mean every single thing that's been confirmed as happening in conjunction with them counts.) 16:41 "Yeah, the Doctor's people are back, I remember now." 16:42 (The First, Second, and Last Great Time Wars are a thing. Big Finish has The Web Of Time.) 16:42 (I hope The Ancestor Cell doesn't count.) 16:43 (...Okay, bad unnoun, don't get sidetracked. Take it to PM later.) 16:43 (XDDDD) 16:43 <@Wackd> (I'm not saying none of it counts, I'm just saying don't tell me what the Doctor's perspective on the whole ordeal is. It probably won't gel.) 16:44 <@Wackd> (And I'm not telling you anything you've said so far is necessarily bad or wrong.) 16:44 (Besides, all I'm describing is things that happened. Not the political spin on them. Not 'it's bad because of reasons'.) 16:44 <@Wackd> (Fair enough.) 16:44 (...Although come to think of it, the Audios had the Faction reaccepted as a House. So it probably isn't Faction Paradox anymore. Huh.) 16:45 (So the thing about the Time Lords being back for realsies actually changes a lot for Ellie that unnoun didn't know about.) 16:45 (And these changes may take effect retroactively.) 16:45 <@Wackd> (I'm not saying she's necessarily aware of the Time Lords being back.) 16:45 (Of course. Because paradoxes.) 16:45 <@Wackd> (She can not be, if it helps.) 16:45 (And unnoun should have been paying more attention because you mentioned that before.) 16:46 <@Wackd> (I mean it's not like the Doctor's gonna pop 'round to visit or anything.) 16:46 (I think House Paradox would know the status of the Homeworld.) 16:46 <@Wackd> (Well, it all depends on the timeline.) 16:46 <@Wackd> (I mean, she could be from a point in time where they're still dead or locked up or whatever.) 16:47 <@Wackd> (...in fact, she is. This is Oswin Oswald, so...) 16:47 (Damned protocols of linearity. Also, she's also travelling with the Doctor from a point after his/her death at Trenzalore was undone.) 16:48 <@Wackd> (She is, true.) 16:49 "In any case, that reminds me: any idea what we're going to do about this Doctor situation?" 16:50 "I have no idea. I don't think the TARDIS would appreciate us just abandoning her. I don't think I like the idea myself." 16:50 "I do think we need to rest though. The TARDIS herself might need some recovery too." 16:50 "...If she doesn't mind, and I can find the manual, I might try giving her a tune-up." 16:52 Ellie picks a book off the shelf, without looking, and looks to see what it is. 16:52 "Well, you do what you can. If you need any help, I'll be here. Just killing time. Not literally." 16:53 Ellie's not sure whether she'd prefer to kill the Eternal named "Time" or the disembodied Elder God obsessed with robotic Yeti. 16:53 <@Wackd> The book is "Aschripbd: The Life and Times" by Horkford Yollopminsin. It's about a foot thick and bound in leather. 16:54 "Ash-rip-bid?" 16:54 <@Wackd> It's actually pronounced Yansinfinaskmin, though there's no way to determine this from the cover. 16:55 Ellie checks the Table of Contents. 16:56 <@Wackd> There's three sections: "Life", "Times", and "Mfjahdnghr-4". 16:57 "Odd book so far." 16:57 Janeth gets up and pulls a couple more off the shelves, bring them back to the table. 16:57 *bringing 16:58 <@Wackd> The books are "Relationship Maintence: Pleasing your Robot" and "Last Wills and Testiments: The Complete Collection". The former is thicker than one'd expect, the latter far smaller. 16:58 Ellie opens the book to "Mfjahdnghr-4" with one hand while with her other hand she pulls another book off the shelf, wondering if it was the TARDIS manual, The Book Of The War, The Book Of The Peace, the journal of Christine Summerfield/Cousin Eliza, as collected in Dead Romance. 16:59 (In-universe books are fun.) 16:59 (or the journal of Christine.) 16:59 (or.) 17:00 "... Do I even want to know why robosexuality is a thing?" 17:00 Ellie frowned. "Why wouldn't it be?" 17:00 <@Wackd> It's the 2359th edition of volume one of "Enterprise Eruditorium: An Unofficial Critical History of Star Trek". 17:00 Ellie wondered how Cousin Pinocchio was doing. 17:01 Placing "Last Wills" on top of the other book, he opened it up to the ToC. 17:01 <@Wackd> The print is absurdly fine, but fortunately there's a magnifying glass tied to the end of the piece of string that served as a bookmark. 17:02 "... The hell?" He takes the magnifying glass and tries looking over the text. 17:02 Ellie went to another shelf, and started looking for other books, hoping one would be the TARDIS manual, or Summer Falls, or The Angel's Kiss. Amelia Williams was always her favorite author. 17:03 Author/Editor. 17:03 <@Wackd> Most of these books would be available if she looked hard enough, except for the manual. 17:03 The Melody Malone series got a bit ridiculous at times though. 17:04 "Have you been able to find anything? I'm looking over some kind of book of wills that doesn't seem to say where it's from." 17:04 "Alright, could you point me in the direction of the manual please? I mean, you had a lot of burns in there. You're fixing them now, but I know that's not always enough." 17:04 <@Wackd> The table of contents for "Last Wills" is basically a phone book, an alphabetical listing of everyone who ever lived. Somehow, despite the assorted alphabets this required it to reconcile, the first was still the will of Aaron Aaronson. 17:05 "I'm not going to change things that you like the way they are." 17:05 "I like you as a police box too." 17:05 "Everybody does." 17:05 "I don't even know what a police box is." 17:06 "Sorry, wasn't talking to you." 17:06 "Just saying." 17:06 "Good lord, this book's contents are frustrating." 17:06 He gets up to grab a couple more books. 17:07 <@Wackd> If he looked long enough, he might recognize some names, but he doesn't appear to have the patience for that. 17:08 "I know how you work. I know he keeps throwing out the manual. And it keeps reappearing. Pretty sure that's your doing." 17:08 "She. Sorry." 17:09 "I know that's rude of me." 17:10 <@Wackd> Suddenly, a book fell off its shelf in front of Ellie. Big yellow thing, about two feet thick. The title read "TT Type 40 Module: Complete Instructions." 17:10 "Let's see..." He finds a ladder nearby and uses it to get to the top of the shelf, grabbing 2 more books. 17:11 <@Wackd> "A Complete Encyclopedia of Mourning Rituals" and "Reaper Man" found their way into Janeth's hands. 17:13 He climbs down and looks at the covers. 17:13 "This looks dark, and this looks silly AND dark." 17:13 "... What's that you've got there?" 17:15 (Sorry. Had to take a bathroom break.) 17:17 Ellie glanced at Reaper Man, and thought about her mask. She hadn't worn it in a while. It was probably lonely. 17:17 "I found the manual. Think I'll head back to the Console room with it." 17:17 "...I'm not sure, but I think she might be trying to tell you something." 17:19 "... Hmm." 17:20 "Well, you can go on ahead and fix things. I'm sure I'll be fine." 17:20 "Thank you for the tour and the talk, at the least." 17:20 "Take care in here." Ellie waved 'bye' and walked out the door back into the corridor. 17:21 He waved back, then turned back to the table and the books he'd found. 17:21 <@Wackd> The doors on the walls had rearranged themselves, but the corridor still, thankfully, lead directly back to the stairs to the console room. 17:21 "Hmm..." 17:22 Ellie walked down the stairs, sat on them, and opened up to the table of contents. 17:22 Thinking about the words Ellie left him, he arranged the books, laying flat in order that he'd found them. 17:22 <@Wackd> The table of contents was strangely absent. Instead, a large number "35192527" took up the whole of the page. 17:23 Ellie memorized the number, then flipped through other pages to try to see what information she could find. 17:23 <@Wackd> All of the right-hand side pages had those numbers on them, the left hand side pages all read the word "BACK" in large letters. 17:24 "Hmm." 17:24 Meanwhile, back in the library, the realization started hitting Janeth. 17:24 "...Okay, sorry, could you please help me with this?" 17:25 "Like, I mean, I heard about the way you could control Laura Tobin sometimes." 17:25 <@Wackd> As if in response, a large gust of wind blew out of the corridor Ellie had left. 17:25 "And onetime I sorta snarked with your voice interface." 17:25 "There was a haunted house and..." 17:26 ...:Okay, back to the corridor." 17:26 "Back to the corridor." 17:26 (Okay, I dunno what happened there.) 17:26 Ellie goes back into the corridor. 17:27 He looked up at the ceiling and sighed. If his eyes could've expressed sadness, they would've. 17:27 <@Wackd> The door to the library is still wide open. 17:27 "...You want me to fix something in the library?" 17:27 Moving the other books out of the way, he sat down and started reading the "Mourning Rituals" book. 17:28 <@Wackd> The type for that is also ungodly small, though there's a microscope on there as well. 17:28 "Unless I need the manual to understanding this manual, in which case I can see why she keeps throwing it out." 17:29 Ellie heads back into the library. 17:30 <@Wackd> The table that Janeth is sitting at, suddenly and without warning, violently upends itself, and the "Last Wills and Testaments" book lands at Ellie's feet. 17:30 "Ahh!" He falls back from being upended by the upending, falling out of his chair. 17:31 Ellie sighs, opens the book, extends her eyestalk, sets it to its magnification settings, to be adjusted as necessary. 17:31 Her memory will tell her what she needs to know from her scans. 17:31 "Ohh... what the hell, TARDIS?" 17:32 Ellie looks through the table of contents. 17:32 <@Wackd> The listing "Doctor, The - 35192527" might catch her attention. 17:33 He finally gets up and starts looking around, putting the table back in place. 17:33 "Great... damn thing's gone somewhere now." 17:34 Ellie takes note of that, and recognizes the number, but isn't especially concerned. If the Doctor was dead the TARDIS would be a lot more upset. To the extent that Brom, Zinnia and Hal wouldn't just be goofing off. 17:34 Also the Doctor had died before. 17:34 And then had not died. 17:34 Ellie herself was a result of a death of the Doctor that had not taken place. 17:35 Instead she looks through the book for names she recognizes. 17:35 There are a lot of Oswalds. 17:35 And Simons. 17:35 Simeons. 17:35 http://wackd.tumblr.com/post/50949312650/how-did-the-great-intelligence-mess-with-the-doctors 17:36 (Sorry. http://wackd.tumblr.com/post/50949312650/how-did-the-great-intelligence-mess-with-the-doctors) 17:36 (It was meant to be OOC.) 17:36 Finally, Ellie turns to the section indicated as the Doctor's. 17:37 She scans the section. 17:37 "Why is the Doctor dying in your manual?" 17:38 (Forget that last one.) 17:38 <@Wackd> There are a lot of different wills from a lot of different points in time, but she might eventually notice the her name and the name of her compatriots. 17:38 "Why is the Doctor's will in your manual?" 17:38 Janeth notices Ellie's voice and looks over. 17:38 "Back so soon? Did you find anything?" 17:39 Ellie thought she'd die before. She's part of a cult that venerates death. She's not especially concerned. 17:39 She also actually has died before, sort of. 17:39 "Just the Doctor's will. And all of ours." 17:39 "Weird, I haven't gotten around to writing it yet." 17:39 <@Wackd> To rephrase: she would eventually notice her name and the names of her compatriots in the Doctor's will. 17:40 (Nevermind that then.) 17:40 "...Is she leaving you to us?" 17:40 "Again, why is that in your manual?" 17:41 "Secondly, I was born to save the Doctor, and I'd quite like to do that, even if I have to tear the laws of time apart to do so." 17:42 "I mean, I finally got the souffle recipe down. She said I couldn't. I need to rub her nose in it." 17:42 <@Wackd> "To Whom It May Concern," the will began. "Well, actually, it concerns quite a lot of folks, quite possibly the whole of the Universe, so I suppose you should scratch that and just write 'To Everyone'. Yes, that's better, do that. No, no, don't just write down everything I'm--oh, never mind, let's get on with it." 17:42 "Yes, get on with it." 17:43 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1YmS_VDvMY 17:43 He moves up to Ellie's side to read. 17:43 <@Wackd> "Someone's just quoted Monty Python, I suppose, so that's nice. In any case--To Everyone. Please don't be too concerned, this sort of thing happens all the time, and I'm sure I've found a way out of it, but in case I haven't, maybe do be concerned, actually. Nothing's guaranteed, after all." 17:44 Ellie activates a neat peace of software that basically means she's projecting the will in the Doctor's voice as she reads. 17:44 She's not reading it aloud. She can, in fact, interrupt the playback with her own voice if she needs to. 17:44 <@Wackd> "Thinking about it now I suppose I don't actually have a lot to say to everyone. And I've addressed everyone I've known personally in previous wills, so let's skip ahead to the current set. Keep it brief. This is already getting tedious." 17:45 Ellie continues. She wants to read and hear everyword. 17:45 (unnoun will not be decieved. She read this in Darths and Droids.) 17:47 <@Wackd> "To Brom, Ellie, Hal and Zinnia. I don't have a lot to leave you, I suppose, except the TARDIS. I'll thank you to leave her be until she reaches her final resting place, which she might do immediately or decades and decades from now. She probably won't tell you, of course. She's quite cryptic. It's one of the traits she and I share." 17:47 "Terrific." 17:48 Ellie pauses the playback for a moment. "I will run her and all of us ragged to save you if necessary." 17:48 Ellie resumes playback. 17:49 <@Wackd> "I should hope that she'd drop you all off somewhere nice before she does, though. Cemetery planets are such dreary places. She might not land on a cemetery planet, of course. She might land somewhere nice, like Songhaven. Have I ever told you about Songhaven? Lovely place, except of course for the ban on singing...anyway..." 17:52 <@Wackd> "Oh! She might come looking for me. Or you might have to do that. Regardless. I expect she might let you pretend to fly her. Quite generous of her to let me all these years. Thank you, dear, if you're reading this." 17:53 "Odd sense of humor is another trait, I take it?" 17:53 "Very much so." 17:53 (Was that the Doctor or Ellie?) 17:54 (I'm going to say both, and that Ellie's voice was simultaneous with the software.) 17:54 A look of slight confusion appears on Janeth's face. 17:55 Ellie glances up. "...You honestly can't be taking this as well as you are." 17:56 "I'm not the one who knew her." 17:57 "Not you!" Ellie went back to talking at the ceiling, or floor, or walls, or, or, or... "I mean, you dragged us to a bloody cybership in the middle of nowhere!" 17:57 <@Wackd> If the TARDIS responded, it wasn't in any way Ellie could notice. 17:58 "You know who I am, where I come from. You didn't like me when I first met the Doctor because I was 'impossible'. You know what's different about me since then. You know exactly what's in my closet." 17:59 "You know that I'm not going to give up on her." 18:00 Janeth would make a mental note to ask about that 'impossible' thing at a better time. 18:00 <@Wackd> A lightbulb flickered above Ellie. Beyond that the room remained still. 18:01 Ellie looked up at said light bulb. Despite what cartoons she'd seen as a nanny indicated, she did not have any ideas. 18:03 <@Wackd> (Continue reading?) 18:03 Ellie goes back to reading. 18:03 <@Wackd> "Now then! Seeing as that's really all I have to leave you, except of course for all the accumulated wealth and estates I've piled up over the years and forgotten about entirely that you're welcome to claim if you can get it sorted... 18:04 <@Wackd> ...it's time for that part of every will where I deal with any remaining emotional baggage I've left unresolved. You each get your own sections, and while I recommend you don't read each other's you can sort that out yourselves." 18:04 Ellie didn't care much about wealth. She wasn't allowed much in the way of possessions anyway. And besides, legal matters were not her forte. 18:05 "...I don't remember if Brom learned how to read." 18:06 "Well, you did a good job reading that. Maybe you could read it to him?" 18:06 "And it's kind of rude to not sort out emotional baggage beforehand." 18:06 "Is Brom a him?" 18:06 "I never asked." 18:06 "She said not to read each other's." 18:06 (No, Brom's not a him, stop pointing out when I fuck up! No, Ellie would call Brom xyr.) 18:07 (Wack'd, I demand that you not count that or nomuru's two responses to it in the story section.) 18:07 <@Wackd> (Sure.) 18:07 (I can let calling the Doctor 'he' pass because she sorta knew him as Eleven.) 18:08 (I mean, okay, yeah with these issues it's important to point out when we fuck up. But. Um.) 18:08 (Wait, did I call Brom a 'him'?) 18:08 (No, Janeth did.) 18:08 (Which led to him wondering.) 18:08 (You might need to keep up.) 18:09 "Brom's nonbinary." 18:09 (Sorry! :( ) 18:10 "Well, somebody's gonna have to teach Brom how, then." 18:10 Ellie stared at the walls, ceiling and floor. She was upset. Against all better judgement, and in a fit of pique, she went for a low-blow. 18:10 "I can't believe that I care for her more than you do." 18:11 <@Wackd> There was no response. 18:12 "...Okay, shit, now I'm really worried about you, because the last time we had this conversation your voice interface activated and I called you a 'cow' and you implied I only care about myself and." 18:13 "...And sorry, I shouldn't have said that it was awful and I didn't mean it and." 18:13 Janeth placed a hand on Ellie's shoulder, in a moment of empathy. 18:14 Ellie drew a long, shuddering breath. 18:15 "Thank you, Janeth." Ellie started to address the TARDIS again "...Right. None of this helps me insofar as getting you fixed up. I mean, I don't understand why page number for the Doctor's will is in your manual anyway." 18:16 "Maybe if I fix you some more you'll feel good enough to be mad at me for what I said." 18:17 "Maybe it's there because she knew you would find it?" 18:18 "Why me? And why couldn't we wait until Brom, Zinnia and Hal were up? Why do I have to break it to them?" 18:18 "... Because you're 'impossible'?" 18:18 He shrugged. 18:19 "...Oh. Right. This is getting back at me then. Before I even said it." 18:19 "Well, nobody ever said the impossible was bad by default." 18:19 Ellie smiled slightly. "Have you ever thought about how you'd look in a skull mask, old girl? I gotta say, you're qualified." 18:20 "Sometimes it takes the impossible to handle the impossible." 18:20 Ellie was ignoring Janeth in favor of the room she was in. Not very polite of her. But then, she'd not known him for very long. 18:21 Ellie had known the TARDIS for a very long time indeed. 18:22 Ellie put a bookmark in the book of the wills, and closed it. With her implants, there was the risk of reading the "baggage" of one of the others and not being able to forget it. 18:22 (accidentally reading) 18:23 "...Alright, Janeth, it's been a long day. I think we should all go to bed. Hopefully there's a bed in here somewhere for you, if not, the bedrooms are usually close together." 18:23 "Yeah... Long day." 18:24 Ellie picked up the book of last wills, the TARDIS manual, and left the library, and started heading to where she hoped her bedroom would be. 18:24 "Goodnight, Janeth. Welcome to the TARDIS." 18:24 <@Wackd> There's suddenly two doors where the door out of the library had been. 18:24 Ellie opens one of them, then the other. 18:24 <@Wackd> One is the proper way out. The other is a new bedroom. 18:25 "Guess you've got a room here after all." 18:25 "Well, that's good." 18:25 He approaches his door. "Hopefully, it's got something strong for me." 18:26 "Hopefully. Sleep well." 18:26 Ellie takes the door back into the corridor. 18:26 "Thanks. Good night, impossible girl." 18:27 Ellie starts looking for her bedroom. 18:27 Janeth takes his door, shutting it behind him and moving to rest. 18:28 (Um, What does Ellie see and do?) 18:28 (She's in a corridor? And?) 18:28 Ellie opens a door. 18:28 <@Wackd> The corridor is changed from before, this time leading further around in the other direction, and the stairs from before are absent. 18:29 <@Wackd> The door opens and inside is the ticket booth again. This time, there's a little box wrapped in gift paper on the counter. 18:29 Ellie picks up the box and looks at it. 18:29 <@Wackd> It's a perfectly ordinary box, though the gift paper is a garish shade of green. 18:30 (Is there an inscription? A note?) 18:30 <@Wackd> "FOR ELLIE" is scrawled crudely on the underside. 18:31 Ellie takes it, and leaves the tickey booth room, heading down the corridor to her own bedroom. She can open it there. 18:32 She walks further in the other direction. The part of the corridor that wasn't there when they started looking for the library. 18:32 <@Wackd> There are doors all over the corridor, and a fork--not, in fact, an intersection--towards the end of it . 18:34 "...It's been a long day. I just want to sleep. Can I get to my room please?" 18:34 "I know you're probably mad at me. And I know I deserve it." 18:34 <@Wackd> A door creeked opened beneath her feet. 18:34 Ellie glanced at it, and looked inside. 18:35 <@Wackd> It's her room. 18:36 Ellie went into the room, into her closet, and pulled out some materials: her mask, some candles, some ash, some herbs, and one of Brom's other pigs he left behind, still alive, and a knife. 18:37 Ellie sat them on the floor in front of her bed, sat down, and unwrapped the box. 18:38 <@Wackd> And thank god. Seriously, that was some hideous gift paper. 18:38 <@Wackd> Underneath the box is a nice cardboard brown. 18:38 Ellie opens it. 18:40 Ellie opens the nice cardboard brown box and looks inside it. 18:41 <@Wackd> Inside is a crude drawing of a Dalek, a familiar skull mask draped over its eyestalk, on what appears to be prescription paper. Underneath, in chicken scrawl: "ADMIT. ONE FREE PASS.", followed by what might've been a signature. 18:41 (...unnoun is confused but doesn't think Ellie should be.) 18:42 (Is 'admit' supposed to be 'admittance'? For the ticket booth?) 18:42 (Is the TARDIS saying I get a pass for being rude to her?) 18:42 (Did the Doctor want me to admit something?) 18:43 (Who's signature?) 18:43 (Who's handwriting?) 18:43 <@Wackd> (Doctor's handwriting.) 18:43 <@Wackd> (Doctor's signature.) 18:43 (Doctor as in doctor or as in Doctor?) 18:43 <@Wackd> (Thought the prescription paper would give it away.) 18:43 <@Wackd> (Latter.) 18:44 (No, seriously, I feel like my character should get what 'admit. one free pass' means, but I don't.) 18:45 Ellie sighed. "Knew all along. Of course." 18:45 <@Wackd> (Admit has a double meaning. It's admission, as in permission to come in, but also admittance, as in he's admitting he knows. About you. And is giving you a free pass for not being honest.) 18:46 (So is this because I decided not to read my own section in the "baggage" part of the will? Also, how can I read that, because I 18:46 (because I'm the only one that doesn't need the magnifying glass, and I might read the other companions' sections by mistake?) 18:47 (Nevermind.) 18:47 <@Wackd> (It is because you chose not to skip ahead, yes.) 18:47 (You set up the ticket booth earlier. Wow.) 18:48 <@Wackd> (nomuru2d did, actually!) 18:48 (A little improv can go a long way, it seems.) 18:48 (Also, I went in with the assumption that the Doctor knew about the 'Dalek' thing earlier. What with Zinnia knowing about the eyestalk. It was the Faction/House Paradox thing Ellie was hiding.) 18:48 (Also I'm thinking the mask has a slot for the eyestalk.) 18:48 (Nevermind.) 18:49 <@Wackd> (Hence the skull mask. The Doctor's not the best artist, she figured you might not get it if she doodled a stick figure of you.) 18:49 <@Wackd> (Dalek, though? Immediately recognizable.) 18:49 Ellie takes the ash, the candles, the herbs, and her own welling tears and inscribes them into a ritual circle. 18:50 On the floor of her room. 18:50 Obviously. 18:50 (Okay, not sure about those two sentence fragments. Sorry.) 18:51 <@Wackd> (S fine.) 18:53 She lights the candles, takes the knife, pulls up her sleeve, and cuts lightly along the wrist, just, enough to draw a light amount of blood. She holds her arm over the circle, and the blood is seemingly sucked off the blade and out of her arm and into the seal. She takes the now clean knife, and the pig, and slits its throat. Again, the blood doesn't stay on the knife, leaving it clean. 18:53 The dead pig is placed in the centre of the circle. 18:54 "I'm not giving up on you yet." 18:55 Meanwhile, in his bedroom, Janeth found himself lying in bed, staring at the ceiling. His uniform lay crumpled in a corner of the room. Next to his bed was a glass with traces of a clear substance, with a bottle of the stuff half-empty. 18:55 Ellie begins to chant: "From life to life, in continual transgression..." 18:56 (I think I'm done. Like, I don't want to, like, depict the rest of Ellie's ritual. In this session at least. I feel it makes a good character-based cliffhanger.) 18:56 (Also, did one of my above paragraphs cut off?) 18:56 When he'd gotten his eyes, they had to remove his tear ducts. He couldn't cry even though he wanted to. 18:56 "I don't wanna give up... But what do I do?" 18:56 <@Wackd> (I don't think so, no.) 18:57 (I think that might be a good stopping point for me too.) 18:58 <@Wackd> (Yeah, sure.) 18:58 (Also, I should have mentioned Ellie putting on her mask earlier, before she started the actual ritual. She did. I forgot.) 18:58 (... I think I might be more affected by what's happened than I expected. I'm actually tearing up. XD) 18:59 <@Wackd> (K. And that's good to hear!) 18:59 (I started to too.) 18:59 (I am.) 18:59 <@Wackd> (Aw. :( ) 18:59 (At least I can blame it on hormones.) 19:01 (So we done for tonight then?) 19:01 <@Wackd> (I guess, yeah.) 19:02 Anything else to talk about? 19:02 Meeting next week? 19:02 When the blog update will be up? 19:03 <@Wackd> Well, now I guess I have to determine a solid explanation for what's happened to the Dcotor, since you're gonna find him with the ritual. 19:03 Whether you cut out without us noticing and we need to help with the transcript? 19:03 <@Wackd> I was here the whole time. Blog post should be up sooner than later. 19:03 Okay. Good. 19:03 See ya! 19:04 <@Wackd> See ya! Session Close (#tvtropesdoctorwho): Sat Mar 22 19:46:57 2014 -0400